Review of Garbo Talks (1984) by Paul Z — 21 Dec 2010

Flat as a tack - Ron Silver as a leading man is a concept that just doesn't work. I like him as a character actor, though. The film has no energy at all, but it picks up in the final reel, when Anne Bancroft delivers quite a stunning scene all in one take.

Very effective, very moving. In fact, the cutting style in the film is quite remarkable - few close-ups, few cuts, everything played out in master shots. I don't know if it's by design, of Lumet just being lazy, though.

Oh, and this is probably the only film I've seen with a [i]good[/i] cameo by Harvey Fierstein.